Men's Basketball split-squad downs St. Clair College 93-70 on first stop of Canadian exhibition tour
By Tim Glon
WINDSOR, Ontario -- An Ohio Northern split-squad opened its Canadian tour with a 93-70 victory at St. Clair College in a men's basketball exhibition game Friday night at the St. Clair SportsPlex.
The game was the first of four exhibition games for the Polar Bears on their Canadian tour during the school's Fall Break.
Junior Aron Thress led seven Polar Bears in double figures in scoring with 17 points.
Junior Travis Feitshans had 11 points, junior Joey Hurless scored 11 points, freshman Brandon Hawkins scored 11 points and junior Konnor Baker, junior John Rasch and freshman Jared Poling added 10 points each for ONU.
"I was very pleased," ONU head coach Kevin Byrne said. "It was out first international competition, so that makes it pretty neat. Our guys played well and we were very balanced. It was a nice way to start our trip."
Hurless drained a pair of 3-pointers in the first minute as the Polar Bears built first quarter leads of 8-0, 15-4 and 23-6 before settling for a 23-9 advantage at the end of the first of four 10-minute quarters.
The Saints rallied in the second quarter as the Polar Bears played all 13 of its roster players to pull within 32-29 with three minutes left in the half.
But Baker nailed a 3-pointer and Rasch made back-to-back layups pushed the lead to 39-29 in the final minute of the period.
Northern went on a 16-0 run early in the third period to take control of the contest, pushing its lead to 59-34 with 6:12 left in the period.
ONU led 70-47 after three quarters and emptied the bench in the final 10 minutes.
The Polar Bears will travel to Toronto on Saturday for a pair of games, playing at Seneca College at Noon and at George Brown College at 7 pm.
